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Pope Leo XIV smiles during his first general audience in St. Peter's Square on May 21, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNAVatican City, May 21, 2025 / 10:46 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV will hold a meeting of cardinals on June 13 to give the final approval to the canonizations of several beatified men and women.The ordinary public consistory, as it is called, will be the first of Leo's pontificate. Pope Francis had called for the consistory in late February, when he was in the hospital, but the date was never set.At the consistory, cardinals will vote to approve the canonizations of five beatified men and women whose causes were advanced earlier this year by Pope Francis. The vote of the cardinals marks the final step in the canonization process and allows a date for the Mass of canonization to be set.Among the almost-canonized saints expected to be discussed on June 13 is Blessed Bartolo Longo (also known as Bartholomew Longo).Longo, an Italian layman and lawyer, was a former Sata...
Credit: Gregory Dean/ShutterstockDenver, Colo., May 20, 2025 / 17:28 pm (CNA).The Archdiocese of Denver launched a vocations campaign this weekend to connect young men who may be interested in pursuing the priesthood with the archdiocese.The "Called By Name" campaign invites parishioners across the archdiocese to nominate young men ages 15 to 35 who they think may have the qualities to become a priest.The archdiocese is one of nine dioceses currently collaborating with Vianney Vocations, an organization founded in 2009 that helps support vocations efforts in Catholic dioceses around the U.S.Men who are nominated by their fellow parishioners will receive a letter from the archbishop congratulating them for being recognized.The letter encourages them to be open to God's call in their lives and invites them to connect with Father Jason Wallace, the archdiocesan director of vocations, who will send a weekly message about discernment to nominees. Nominees are also invited to attend ...
"Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope," written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News, is the first authoritative biographical portrait of Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was elected the new Holy Father on May 8, 2025. / Credit: EWTN PublishingCNA Staff, May 20, 2025 / 17:58 pm (CNA).A new biography of Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States, will be available May 21 from EWTN and is now available for preorder. "Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope," written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News, is the first authoritative biographical portrait of Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, who was elected the new Holy Father on May 8. The book will be officially launched at a May 22 event set to be held at the Vatican's Campo Santo Teutonico in the Aula Benedict XVI at 5:30 p.m. local time.The biography provides an "assessment of his three fundamental roles as a successor to the apostles: his s...
With Speaker of the House Mike Johnson by his side, President Donald Trump speaks to the press following a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 18:28 pm (CNA).While speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he likes Pope Leo XIV and looks forward to meeting with the pope's elder brother, Louis Prevost, at the White House."I like the pope and I like the pope's brother," Trump told reporters after meeting with House Republicans in an attempt to rally support behind a budget reconciliation bill.Trump noted that the pope's brother Louis "is a major MAGA fan," alluding to the "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan."I look forward to getting him to the White House," Trump said. "I want to shake his hand. I want to give him a big hug."??PRESIDENT TRUMP: I like the Pope, and I like the Pope's brother. You know he's a major ...
Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City Missouri. / Credit: eurobanks/ShutterstockSt. Louis, Mo., May 20, 2025 / 12:32 pm (CNA).Republican lawmakers in Missouri approved a new referendum last week that, if passed by voters, could reinstate many of the state's pro-life laws, largely undoing a previous statewide referendum that expanded abortion rights a few months ago. The ballot measure, HJR73, would ask voters if they want to allow abortion only in the case of a medical emergency, fetal abnormality, or rape or incest. It also would ban public funding for any abortions not done because of medical emergency or rape or incest. In addition, the referendum would allow the state General Assembly to enact laws that regulate the provision of abortions, abortion facilities, and abortion providers to ensure the health and safety of pregnant mothers.The measure would also constitutionally ban hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries for "gender transition" for minors. Missour...
Planned Parenthood gets millions of dollars in federal support each year. / Credit: Ken Wolter/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 14:50 pm (CNA).Two American Catholic bishops are hailing a Republican-led legislative effort to end certain taxpayer funds for abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood as well as an attempt to block funding for transgender drugs and surgeries for children.Proposed budget language currently being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives would prevent Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for any services. It would also end all reimbursements for transgender drugs or surgeries that doctors prescribe for children."Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and 'gender transition' services with their tax dollars," Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said in a joint statement on Monday from the U.S. Conference ...
The city of Baltimore. / Credit: Sean Pavone/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).The Archdiocese of Baltimore has been accused of defying a Vatican order after allegedly refusing to reopen a Maryland parish despite a letter from the Holy See halting its closure. In the spring of 2024 Archbishop William Lori announced the "difficult" decision to merge parishes in Baltimore and surrounding suburbs as part of the archdiocesan "Seek the City to Come" initiative. Among the parishes slated for closure was St. Clare in Essex.Several St. Clare parishioners who disagreed with the plan sought assistance from Save Rome of the West, an organization that offers consulting services "to aid in the preservation and maintenance of Catholic churches and parishes."Group co-founders Jason Bolte and Brody Hale helped parishioner Barbara Pivonski write and send a formal letter to the Vatican in October 2024 appealing Lori's plan and requesting that the church re...
Pope Leo XIV and St. Nicholas of Tolentine. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News; Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel of the Augustinian OrderLima Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 09:21 am (CNA).Perhaps many Catholics wonder who Pope Leo XIV's favorite saint is. A Peruvian missionary priest who is a close friend and confidant of the pontiff said he knows the answer in this little-known devotion of the Holy Father, who used to pray to this saint on his knees in a small chapel near Chiclayo in northern Peru."St. Nicholas of Tolentine is, without a doubt, his favorite saint. He is the protector of his perpetual vows, his great devotion within Augustinian spirituality," said Peruvian priest Father David Farfán Guerrero, whom the Holy Father met in 1985 in Chulucanas in the Piura district of the country.Farfán, who has served as pastor of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo Parish for about 10 years, welcomed ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, to San Nicolás, a small settlement loc...
Italian Cardinal Baldassare Reina was created a cardinal by Pope Francis during the consistory at St. Peter's Basilica on Dec. 7, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNAVatican City, May 20, 2025 / 10:43 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV, in one of his first personnel appointments, on Monday named Cardinal Baldassare Reina grand chancellor of the Pontifical Theological Institute John Paul II for Marriage and the Family, replacing Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who turned 80 on April 20.Reina, 54, is vicar general of the Diocese of Rome since 2024. As part of that role, he is also grand chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University, the home of the John Paul II Institute.Pope Leo's May 19 appointment of Reina as grand chancellor appears to be a return to the former practice of linking the leadership of the institute to the vicar general of Rome. This practice had been changed under Pope Francis, who named Paglia to the role in 2016.The following year, in 2017, Francis made the controversial decisi...
Cardinal William Goh speaks to EWTN News Vice President Matthew Bunson in Rome on Monday, April 19, 2025. / Credit: EWTN NewsVatican City, May 20, 2025 / 11:20 am (CNA).Singapore's Cardinal William Goh believes Pope Leo XIV will build a greater unity within the Church, particularly for Catholic faithful often divided on matters of Church doctrine and morality.Calling the new pontiff a "gift of God" in an interview with EWTN News Vice President Matthew Bunson, Goh said the Holy Father is the "right person" to lead the Church toward synodality and explain the balance between "orthodoxy and being progressive.""Being traditional is not wrong [and] going back to the orthodoxy of the Church is not wrong," he said. "But, at the same time, we are not just asking our Church to be too legalistic about our moral doctrines in terms of practice."Describing the new pontiff as an active listener who is "very attentive to the concerns and sharings of the cardinals," Goh said the Holy Father's ...
